May 2 · This Day in America
It is the Confederacy's most brilliant day. Stonewall Jackson has just marched his corps in secret around the Union flank and shattered it at dusk near Chancellorsville, Virginia. Hungry for more, he rides forward in the dark to scout a night attack. His own North Carolina troops, nerves raw, mistake the riders for Union cavalry and fire. Three bullets find Jackson — two in the left arm, one in the right hand. Surgeons amputate the arm by lantern light. For a week he seems to rally. Then pneumonia takes him on May 10. Lee said he had lost his right arm. The war's most feared field commander was undone not by the enemy but by the fog and fear of his own line — a reminder, told straight, of how close confusion always rides beside courage.
Source: www.battlefields.org
Also on this day · 1885
In Holyoke, Massachusetts, Clark W. Bryan publishes the first issue of Good Housekeeping, a fortnightly costing ten cents, promising "to produce and perpetuate perfection — or as near unto perfection as may be attained in the household." It would become an American institution, and its Seal of Approval one of the most trusted marks in the country.
Source: www.history.com